I feel terrible about the long wait. My chapters should be coming out faster after next Saturday, but until then you'll have to wait.
Vlad was staring at me with wide eyes. He looked so sad and betrayed that I wanted to show him that I was alive somehow.
"I must summon the other ghosts." Jack said smugly. "Then we shall raid the Ghost Zone and capture any creature that resists. After we deal with a more important matter of course." He glanced menacingly at Vlad. "Your final test is to dispose of the last human in the house." Jack walked up the stairs and we heard the fireplace in the library slide shut behind him.
When I started to walk towards Vlad he continued to look up at me with the sad look in his eyes. Nowhere in them was fear or hatred. Just simple regret and even a tinge of guilt. I helped him up and undid the ropes that had stopped him from trying to escape. Then I took off the gag and waited for him to run.
But Vlad didn't run. Instead he stood where he was and gave me a searching look as if trying to find a glimmer of life. Before I could give away my secret my ghost sense went off. The secret entrance to the lab closed and I turned around to look. No one appeared to be there but my ghost sense had warned me otherwise.
Jack must have been trying to test me. I turned back to Vlad and tackled him. We fell to the ground and I pushed us both through the floor using intangibility.
When we landed safely in a bathroom on one of the lower floors I left Vlad and flew back up to the lab. As I had expected, Jack was waiting for me to return. "What Danny? No gloating about killing your prey? I guess ghost minions don't experience pride either." Jack looked incredibly smug. "Not that you would have anything in your tiny brain worth saying…"
So far the only reason I had held back the urge to talk was because I didn't trust myself. Sam had told me that I was the worst liar in the world. I opened my mouth and was about to say something extremely rude when I caught myself. But Jack had seen my mouth open and was staring with a fierce intensity, like he was waiting for me to slip up.
"Go on Daniel, I know you want to say something." Jack smiled wickedly and waited. I knew that if I didn't say anything then he would find out that I wasn't fully dead. But if I answered there was a high risk that he would find a fault in my words and use it against me as well.
I made sure that my face was still expressionless and said in a monotone, "Prey has been terminated… Master." Inside I was angry that I was forced to call that wicked man my master but my face was still void of emotion.
To my surprise my lie worked. Jack's smug face fell and he seemed almost disappointed. I continued my act and waited to see what would happen next. Jack let out a loud sigh and looked down at me. "I had hoped that I would be able to convince you to join me before my ghost minions got to you." He paced back and forth and continued. "Even though ghost minions are excellent henchmen they are nothing compared to a halfa."
He stopped and looked thoughtful then his smug smile returned. I knew right away that he was going to try and test me again. Jack looked at me and his smile grew wider. "Clockwork is an amazingly helpful ally when you threaten him. Did you know that?" I didn't respond. "Before my ghost minions ripped him limb from limb I learned several things about your past and future."
I didn't like the direction this seemed to be going. Jack continued, "In fact I was the one who made sure you stopped Vlad's accident in the first place!" Dread was replaced with shock. How could he do that? "Clockwork told me about how your future self existed out of time so you would understand if you still had your mind."
"It just so happens that yours truly lived in a dimension separate from yours. Unfortunately my life here was affected by the choices you made over in your own dimension. Now that wasn't fair for me now was it? So I went to Clockwork's castle and managed to enter your world."
I was confused. Parallel dimensions and I was the one who decided what went on in both of them whether I knew it or not. Jack scanned my face for a reaction but didn't find one. I was an expert at blank stares ever since I started taking Mr. Lancers class.
Jack looked slightly less confident and continued. "Remember when Skulker brought you the message demanding the time belt? He said that Lord Plasmius wanted it, but he didn't say which Lord Plasmius." My brain clicked as the pieces of the puzzle fell together. Jack had wanted to go back in time and make sure that he existed, just like my evil self.
"You going back in time was the thing that gave me my ghost powers, but you had to be pushed by certain events to do what I wanted." His smile widened again at a memory. "I had great plans for the both of us Daniel." He said. "Clockwork also told me about your future you see." My stomach flipped. Jack was going to talk about my evil self.
"I'm talking about your evil self." He said. "Apparently a terrible accident caused your whole family to die… and if I recall correctly then you were the one who killed them." I tried my best to keep my face empty but it was extremely hard. "What exactly makes you think that your future won't come back to haunt you?"
His smile stretched like an even more demented version of the Grinch's. "After all, I did raid Clockwork's castle. How do you know that I haven't set your evil half free? Your friends and family will all die because you couldn't help them. And even if you could stop him you would still become him. The curse I tried to put on you had a side affect for you too." I blinked in surprise and hoped that he didn't notice. "Whenever you get angry you will become more and more evil. But that was before my pets got you. All that you are is a mindless slave and that is what you will be for the rest of your pathetic little afterlife."
I couldn't hold my anger back anymore. As he had been giving his speech I had been charging an ecto-blast without realizing it. The blast exploded in a flash of blinding white and with it came my ghostly wail. Time seemed to slow down and right before my blast hit Jack I could see what appeared to be a triumphant look on his face and then...
The blast exploded in a fiery inferno. I didn't realize it but I was still blasting and screaming even after the first explosion. It seemed like years had taken place in between the start and the end of the blast, but it was only about two seconds.
My energy finally gave out and I collapsed onto the floor and changed back to normal (which still looked like my ghost form). For some reason I didn't pass out and stood back up slowly.
Jack was gone. I didn't know if he was dead or not. Something just didn't seem right. I sighed and to my surprise fell straight through the floor. At first I thought that I had been intangible. Then I looked up and realized that my blast had been strong enough to cause the lab to collapse and I had fallen onto a lower level.
Someone coughed behind me and I whirled around in shock. Vlad was standing there covered in dust from the new hole in the ceiling. Once he had rubbed the dirt out of his eyes he fixed his sad blue gaze on me. There was something sort of touching about the fact that he had refused to run away. Vlad had still believed that I was alive when no one else had.
Vlad suddenly smiled and walked up to me. He brushed flour and plaster out of my hair with his hand and said, "Thanks for refusing to turn evil Danny."
Another chapter done.